Superboy Gaiden
by 69BeyondBirthday
Summary: A spinoff of All-New Spider-Mane which involves the adventures of Superboy as he comes into his own, following the death of Super-Man.


Superboy Gaiden

By Nicholas E.P. King, Based on All-New Spider-Mane by Krisstofer O'Brien

 _People always seem to give me a hard time. It seems like wherever I go, I'm just the person they already knew. It's either a dead man or a hero; whichever suits their liking. I once saved the same person twice, only to be told it wasn't the same in their second helping. That excitement from the first? Too good for them, apparently._

 _I go by the name 'Superman', because I don't have what you'd call an age. Still, everyone insists on treating me like the kid, whereas I've had uploaded the Library of Congress into my mind. I'm obviously not stupid._

 _That, and classified information. How Superman came back? That's all I'll ever be._

I

The first person to give me a hard time was Nightwing. Him and that stupid Team of his, a virtual knockoff of the Teen Titans with extras; old glory hasn't fallen far, yet. There's that stupid pest of his, who I've been told is the son of Batman. I'll believe it when I see it.

It's me against this android hooker named Sarah. She's apparently an escapee of the Red Ribbon division of Cadmus decommissioned by Amanda several years ago and is a fusion of human being with cybernetics. Supposedly, the perfect android. To me, she's just a slut with laserbeams and ki training she didn't get on her own.

She's running through the streets like she can't fly, expecting me not to go full-speed while running with this bag of stolen golds from a Metropolis armory. I would hope it was her first mistake, but dropping the bag as soon as I got there was just like I expected of her; a human jewelry shop, inside and out.

"Quite a magnetic personality you have; does it include stealing?"

As we're pushing our interlocked fingers with the wrestle of concrete below, she says to me, "I haven't had the chance to buy new clothes, lately; I figured some gold would do."

He lifts that knee, expecting to hit my ribcage. Conversely, she pulls my arms off to the side with the intention of stretching my center of control outward. Having heat vision released to me by Cadmus for at least a little while this mission allows me to return the favor straight where it hurts.

She's throbbing with the singe, knowing full well she'll be doing better as soon as it cools down. That is, after I throw a pummeling left hook and spin around with my right arm to her face, causing her to fall towards a row of cars. She unexpectedly rhymes the force of her sliding self to the impact it creates, causing her to stand up again as I follow with a somewhat teleported diving kick.

She blocks it with her forearm and I spin the other leg around with the intention of falling on my back to the ground, so as to regain my position. The goal is to keep it away from the skies, since I'm not too concerned about her power level and I don't want the incident where she can harm civilians. My leg lands atop an intersection of her forearms and yet I slide it down from them, careening to the blacktop to her disillusionment. I land on my back and as I expected, she tries to kick me.

I block her bad-leg offensive with a flat palm, rolling onto my chest and thinking of Spider-Man before he disappeared. My fingers webbed, my torso upright and my knees bent, the goal is for her to try and elbow me with a falling offensive. That's where my Cadmus teleport comes in and as she's fallen, it's only to the street as I am above her with mine, delving into that pummel and following it up with a series of punches helping her straight to the sewer.

We're in the splash, probably covered in filth. While I mind it just as much as she does, she probably feels indignant and poised to kill me now that her entire jean getup is covered in shit. She's rising to this anger, blonde hair too seeming-Saiyan for my tastes and yelling, "My clothes are dirty, you son of a bitch! I am going to…"

Slam. Back at her. The excitement of having this level of piss around me makes coming in like a jetski the most fun, her chin practically made of my knee as I've delivered the assault. I grab her by the hair and headbutt her, not expecting to lose the good memory I have had today. I remember the look on her face when we got here, so I'll be sure to have Guardian encrypt it into image form from the back of my mind when I get back. That way if I we resurrect her with new memories, it'll be our sick game.

Besides. She's only a robot. "Any last words, before you open your eyes?"

She asks me what, then my Cadmus heat vision is at full approval to have left her with a searing lobotomy to the very back of her brain through where it hurts; where she can see me. As her clone mind is sleeping to its' grill, I'm left with a joy that everyone's safe. "You know you just killed her, right?"

That voice behind me is a dick. It was right before I was finished that it came to me, acting like the prince; as I let her go, I turn around for only a few seconds' silence before murmuring politely, "You came here in time."

"Blüdhaven was empty. Figured I'd come visit the memorial."

"What, of…", that being the point where I get engrained in his attempt at being the non-Bruce. I fold my arms expecting to have something proud come out, but I don't really see it happening. He says, "You're lucky she wasn't the original. The original was just a little girl that freak Gero killed."

"Point taken. Nothing like offing the robo-slut from outer space, or at least the wing next door to my birthplace."

"You see, Clark never would've used that word: neither should you… You've been making quite a name for yourself, Connor. There's a lot you don't know about being a hero and one of those things is compassion for the enemy, wishing they could be a better person. That, or better android."

"… Question. If we bring her back, let's say she's been dead. Did the dead one go anywhere, while we were bringing her to life?"

"… I don't think we're here to discuss religion, Con. I think…"

"Well let's say she remembers who she nearly killed back at Stockington Gold. Will we wait on her regret to turn to virtue, or will she just decide she doesn't know where she came from except without that?"

"… I…"

"-No. You have no concept of what it's like to be born again."

He stammers, pig. "You think that everything revolves around the sun, like we all share the same light. Then there's the moon, where there's a dark side. With all likelihood, the dark side took our light in the first place and we just didn't know it."

"Connor, you're making no sense. The fact of the matter is you share the shock of his death, as well as his memories of us before you died. But you're not him. Let me help you."

"I hate monkeys."

That's sure to piss anyone off, but I was only saying it to him. _–Fin_


End file.
